Inspired By A Pink Fireman

Yes, indeed, a PINK fireman! Ya’ll know that I have a soft spot in my heart for fire fighters. Twice married to the profession, and sister to two fire fighter brothers, and a few close friends, they all have a special place in my heart.

You also know my very favorite color of all time is PINK! I love this color, always will. I had a totally, bubble gum pink bedroom growing up. I love the color, it’s girly and well it suits me even when sporting red hair.

My mom is a breast cancer warrior. We don’t care for the term ‘survivor’ in this Diva Den, that is a very passive term in our opinion. You don’t passively fight a battle, and when you have breast cancer, or any cancer, it is an all out fight for your life. Warriors are fighters.

Anyway, you can imagine how fast I headed over to check out this article about The Pink Fireman that my blogger buddy, Pink Kim, at Truly Simply Pink had posted on her Facebook page. I was intrigued to say the least. Then I clicked a link in the article (a great read, by the way), and landed on the site, For 3 Sisters, the sisters, being the 3 sisters of The Pink Fireman, who all lost the fight against breast cancer.

OMG you have to read Marshall’s Story, that while it is long, will rip your heart out and make you go hug your family.

Because of my maternal grandmother and a paternal aunt losing their battle with breast cancer, and my mom’s battle, it is a cause very near and dear to my heart.

There is a page for the For 3 Sisters raising money for their team for The Susan G. Komen 3-day walk in October in Washington D.C..

I was inspired to once again start training and participate in a breast cancer walk. But which one? I went to the Komen site and then to the Avon Walk site. Nothing is ‘close’, though Komen has one in Cleveland which is closer than Chicago or Charlotte.

I went to chat with my sister about the idea, knowing she’d be on board as we’ve done walks in the past. We were discussing which organization to walk for, and where, when a commercial came on for the Avon walks! That was like a Divine suggestion. Besides, we are Avon Ladies, it should be a no brainer.

The Avon walk is a 2-day rather than a 3-day, and 21 less miles, but still, 39 miles is no walk in the park!

I got online and registered. Ohhhh emmmm geeeee what am I thinking? I am going to be 49 soon, I weigh 180 pounds (yes I’m posting that for a reason..accountability!) and my idea of an ab workout is pulling my sorry self up out of the bed in the morning. I’d be dead before I made it half way (13 miles) through the first day! I have work to do! In 232 days I will be pounding the pavement, sporting pink, outlandish attire, in Charlotte, North Carolina. I CANNOT WAIT!!!!

I have very much needed a ‘why’ to get my butt in gear. I get loads of inspiration from my son’s blog, The Yoked Trio, but while it is an awesome read, and makes me WANT to be in shape, it wasn’t getting my ample ass up off the couch. It wasn’t my ‘why’ as great as my son’s ‘why’ is, and his desire to share it with others to inspire them to find their own reason why to do it.

But breast cancer hangs over my head, my sister’s head, my daughter’s head…like a time bomb, taunting us…will it go off? Or won’t it? No one can know for certain. But if my walking to raise money can maybe, just maybe, help researchers find a way to make sure that bomb never goes off on another woman in my family, or yours? That WHY is my drive to do this! To spend the next 232 days getting myself up off the couch and training so that when October 27th and 28th arrives, I am in my best physical condition to walk that event both days!

Now, I plan to not only walk, but add some weight training to my conditioning, and for that I will be involving my son. I mean really, look at the body on that kid and it is ALL natural. So are those of his workout buds, the other 2 yoked dudes. They work their tails off! And I’m going to tap into it. If you need body building motivation, hit their blog.

Here is where YOU come in. I need a few things from my readers. I need inspiration, motivation, my own cheering section. I will be posting my progress periodically and your pom poms waving will help!

The other thing you can do is help me raise the necessary minimum donation of $1800. You can donate directly to the cause by clicking below. My goal is $2500. ANY donation is valued and helpful to this cause.

OH and for the record, I wanted to mention that since 1992, Avon has raised and donated more than $740 million dollars to breast cancer programs around the world. Click HERE to read more.

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9 thoughts on “Inspired By A Pink Fireman”

Marshall Moneymaker is an amazing man! I heard about his story last year on the news and had the pleaseure to meet him at last year’s AWBC in DC. He is a wonderful man, loving husband to Shannon, and a relentless Breast Cancer fighter! God bless him!

Thank you for signing up for Charlotte….as a vertern walker, I promise you will never be the same after completing the AWBC. A piece of advice, have tissues for Opening AND Closing ceremonies!

Good for you for signing up! Setting a goal with a firm end date can be very motivating. I do think Komen has a 5k here in Sept or Oct. But that aside, just gotta plug Roncker’s again – they have a walking group to train for a half marathon or marathon – 13.1 or 26.2 miles. Meets twice a week, great way to make friends, and cost averages less than $3 per meet-up without even factoring in that you get a few perks & happy hours during training. Put a photo of what you want your finish line to look like up on your vision board.

Finish line: Every race/run/walk has one. You start, you finish. Find a picture in a magazine of someone that you see as healthy, athletic, unlimited – someone that inspires your health goals and tack it up where you can see it. Spend a few minutes here and there imagining what that person in that picture must feel like accomplishing their goal – and that it will feel the same for you when you accomplish yours – all you have to do is get moving. Vision Board: You’ve mentioned you keep a white board with your Avon goals posted where you can see them – that’s a kind of vision board. I keep a decorated cork board up that I’ve started to tack up things that inspire me – quotes, a compliment someone paid me. Things that I want to do, goals I want to accomplish – represented in any way that means something to me – a picture, a paragraph, a drawing, my board = my rules to put anything on it I want. Right now it has my best times from running on it for different races – and right below each one is my goal for that distance for this year. Keeps it right in front of me & helps me stay focused. I’m sure if you google ‘vision board’ on pinterest you’ll come up with thousands of samples of them – I just like to have mine hanging on a wall where I can’t turn it off any time I want to ignore my goals & eat Cheetos.

That’s amazing. I wish you lots of luck. What a great thing to do. I really need to get my butt in gear and check what they do in our local area. I always say I want to do one of those walks… and h=guess what. I just bought a new pair of running shoes… black, and wait for it, PINK!!!!🙂 No time like the present, right!!!!🙂